Let us not kid ourselves. Life is difficult. Every day we feel some kind of pain, whether it is emotional, psychological or even physical. Every day we are met with new challenges, new tasks, and new responsibilities. Sometimes it may feel overwhelming. When does it stop? How long can you go on like this? When will you catch a break?
Accept it for what it is
It won’t stop. You will keep meeting new challenges, new pain, new tasks and new responsibilities. But once we accept this everything changes. Life changes. You see, we cannot live in this fantasy world where, under a false assumption, everything is great. And if it’s not great we can simply brush it away, turn our backs and move onto something else. No. Not if you want to grow. Not if you want to achieve greatness.
Running from your challenges only feeds them with power and starves you from power. If you want to claim your power back from life and grow in stature and capability you firstly must accept that life is suffering. Secondly you must attack your life head on and structure it to the way you want it to be. Whatever you consider to be of benefit to you in your day, you should do. Create a routine, create good habits. This will make your life a whole lot easier because as we all know, consistently doing something will eventually transform it into a habit that you can do without conscious thought.
Appreciate the bad
Why life is suffering I don’t know. It’s fair to say that nobody really knows. But we cannot escape the reality of life. This is how it is. So we must acknowledge that and proceed anyway. I have been told numerous times on my short but eventful journey of life – from my mentor – that we have to appreciate the sad times as much as the happy times in our lives. That we must cherish the lows to appreciate the highs.
That may sound ludicrous but it’s excellent advice and something we must bring to the forefront of our minds when going through hardship. You may be thinking, how could I possibly appreciate being sad, or stressed, or jealous, or angry or any other negative emotion you may be feeling from whatever hardship you are experiencing.
We can’t avoid, only limit
Just like I, your family, your friends, and everybody else you know, you’re only human. These negative feelings and emotions are inevitable. You’re not the first person to have these thoughts and you’re not the last. You’re not the first person to be in the situation you’re in and you’re not the last. So if these feelings and emotions are inevitable why waste negative energy on them by damning yourself for feeling that way? Why do that when you can be appreciative for them and look at it in a more positive light as something to overcome.
Accept reality. Accept that life is suffering. Once and only once you come to terms with that, then you can really tackle your challenges and conquer them and keep marching forwards. This is because with this new found mind-set you will be expecting to meet challenges, every single day. And with expectation comes preparation. You will become much more equipped to handle stress better. You will have a greater sense of awareness. You will be ready for all the challenges you’re faced with and much more.
It can all change with a shift in your mentality. Just accept reality. Accept that life is suffering.
Thank you for reading.
With love,
Tony.
